The seller wanted to sue the investor/realtor for assigning the home to someone who ended up causing $15k damage, and the buyer wanted to sue the investor/realtor for the $15k assignment fee they paid about a year before the deal fell apart, even though they failed in their obligation to the seller and trashed the house.Long story short, both the seller and the buyer's attorney's ended up threatening the managing broker of the investor with a lawsuit after they both tried "legally extorting" a collective $30k from the investor/realtor unsuccessfully, and the managing broker started to panic as well, which also had a negative impact on the investor/realtor too.So here's the moral of the story:1.

They must provide the tenant a certain amount of time to remedy the current situation (in this case, payment of two months rent) within a certain time period (3 Days).  

so in short find the hard money first

They may short cut the fix, leave things wet, and create an environment for mold. letting an unqualified person work on electrical can be a huge liability if they get hurt or burn the place down.

(This can be risky; use a lawyer.)And everything is negotiable: price, interest rate, who maintains what, time periods, everything.

New investor question here:I have found a short sale that, after running the numbers, appears to be a good deal.

My plan is to speak with a CPA (which I will do shortly thanks to another BP member here for providing me a contact) to speak about this strategy but I wanted to present this to the community first.

One thing I will say is that I don't tie up properties for long periods of time.

You mention the owner has paid $70k on the mortgage but that isn't a number that matters (since who knows what interest rate he's on or if he's made any extra payments), what matters is what the outstanding balance is on the mortgage and can you offer them a purchase price that is A) Fair to the owner, B) Helps them sell with some amount of equity and C) Gives you room that it financially makes sense.The numbers change based on if you want to flip it or rent it, making the question "does it make sense" different based on the direction you choose.In short, I have no idea how much I would offer...

Property you purchase with the intent of holding for productive use in business trade or investment and not primarily for resale does qualify for 1031 treatment.There is no statutory holding period but in general the longer the better.